Playing his first NCAA college football game for UL in front of 62,933 at the University of Kentucky, cornerback Savion Brown fessed up.

It wasn’t like that at Tyler Junior College in Texas. And it certainly wasn’t anything like that at Fair Park High in Shreveport.

So on that Sept. 5 day in Lexington Brown approached Ragin’ Cajuns defensive coordinator and secondary coach Melvin Smith, a long-time former SEC assistant coach at schools including Auburn and Mississippi State, and told him the truth.

It was perhaps the breakthrough both needed in a budding relationship between a young player and his wise, ol’ coach.

“I never played in front of those many people,” Brown said. “I told Coach Smith, ‘I’m nervous, Coach.’ He just sat me down at halftime and said, ‘You’ve just got to play comfortable.’ ”

With Troy McCollum sidelined recently by an ankle injury, Brown has stepped back into a starting role he had at Kentucky, then lost the next week.

What got him from there to here has largely been his relationship with Smith, a veteran coach – he was Hudspeth’s position coach at Delta State way back in the early 1990s – with a knack for knowing when to push which buttons.

How did he do it with Brown?

“I stayed on him. I rode him. And he got tired of me riding him,” Smith said. “I had to get him ready to play as fast as he could get ready.

“And thank God he has skills. You know, he’s not there yet. But if he could just keep improving, he could be a really good player.”

Hudspeth isn’t just talking about the fact Brown has 20 total tackles in six games, tops among all Cajun corners. Or that he has one of only two UL fumble recoveries this season. Or even that he has one of just three Cajun interceptions this season, it coming in an Oct. 20 loss at Arkansas State.

“I will give him a lot of credit,” Hudspeth said. “He has really bought in, and I think it finally showed the other night (against Arkansas State).

“I really thought he had a phenomenal game. He has gotten better each week, and it’s because of his practice habits now. And he’s developed himself into being a better player because of the way he’s preparing.”

“To play corner at a high level you’ve … got to focus, zero in, being able to play down after down after down,” Smith said. “Our defense, the boundary corner has to be a guy that’s focused all the time.

“He’s got all the tools, but he’s never had to stress himself to focus for the length of time it takes to be really good,” the Cajun coordinator added. “He’s getting better, but he still has those little lapses and those little lapses turn into touchdowns.”

That’s constructive criticism Brown can take nowadays, just like he listens when Hudspeth or Smith might say, “It’s either you or the man across from you; who’s gonna make the better play at the end of the day?”

He does so bearing in mind his daily goal.

“I really just want to be better than I am right now,” said Brown, who suggested he can feel a bona fide difference just two months into his Cajun career.